THE VENUES

The Unifrance Terrace at Cannes, a special place at the service of French cinema on the international scene

The Unifrance Terrace will be set up for the seventh consecutive year at 5 rue des Belges, a stone's throw from the Palais des Festivals, in a space spread over three levels designed to welcome the crews of French productions selected in Cannes for their interviews with the international press.

The venue will also host numerous private events (by invitation only): cocktail receptions (in honor of foreign distributors and French exporters, for animation films, documentaries, etc.), the presentation of the Unifrance Short Film Awards, working breakfasts (in the presence of audiovisual attaché networks, focusing on French-speaking regions and events, OFAJ), lunches (EFP) and dinners, notably (the Critics' Week jury, Unifrance's 10 to Watch, the winners of the Unifrance Short Film Awards, etc.).
 

The Unifrance Terrace will also serve as a setting for video interviews conducted by Unifrance with the artists, in order to accompany promotion during Cannes and, later, the release of the films. A photo studio (entrusted to photographer Marie Rouge) will allow portraits to be produced that can be made available to the international press and to foreign festivals in which Unifrance is a partner.

A photo exhibition composed of portraits of filmmakers and actors taken by Marie Rouge during the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris and the Cannes Film Festival, will also be presented on the Unifrance Terrace.
 

The Unifrance stand at the Marché du Film

Unifrance will also be present alongside professionals through its 95-square-meter stand located in the Marché du Film (Riviera-L0), which can host meetings for Unifrance member producers and exporters, and will provide an umbrella for two export companies: MPM Premium and Octopolis.
This space will also be the venue where Unifrance teams will meet with their contacts: directors and selectors of foreign festivals, international distributors, representatives of VOD platforms, exporters, market managers, audiovisual attachés, cultural advisors, partners, and export professionals.

Two happy hours (by invitation only), conceived to encourage – in a convivial way – exchanges between French professionals and their foreign counterparts, are also planned, with a focus on international festivals and producers.

HIGHLIGHTS
 

Launching the Marché on the Unifrance Terrace with foreign distributors and French exporters

Unifrance's traditional cocktail reception, which honors foreign distributors and French exporters, will be held on Wednesday, May 15 on the Unifrance Terrace (by invitation only). This gathering, which marks the beginning of the Marché du Film, will be followed by numerous professional events that will be held either on the Unifrance Terrace or at the Unifrance stand, such as the working breakfast that will bring together French audiovisual attachés and Unifrance teams (May 17).
 

French documentaries on the Unifrance Terrace

On Thursday, May 16, Unifrance will join Cannes Docs & EURODOC to host, on the Unifrance Terrace, Cannes Docs' opening cocktail reception (by invitation only).

On the evening of May 16, the jury for the Oeil d'or documentary award will gather on the Terrace for dinner.

Meetings focusing on exports

Unifrance will participate at the lunch devoted to French cinema in the world organized by the CNC on its beach on Thursday, May 16, that will bring together some 100 French and foreign guests: institutions, distributors, festival directors, exporters, etc.

French animation on the Unifrance Terrace

On Sunday, May 19, Unifrance will join the Marché du Film / Animation Day, Annecy Animation Film Festival, and German Films / Animation Germany to host, on the Unifrance Terrace, a cocktail reception celebrating French animation (by invitation only).

French-speaking regions

On Monday, May 20, a working breakfast focusing on the French-speaking world will be organized with a dozen participants on the theme "What tools should be employed to promote French-language films in French-speaking countries?"
 

Short films on the Unifrance Terrace

• On Thursday, May 23, the 22nd Unifrance Short Film Awards will be announced in the presence of the recipients and the members of the 2024 Jury. The ceremony will be followed by a cocktail reception and diner bringing together the winners (by invitation only).
• In addition, Unifrance will participate in the Short Film Corner breakfasts.

THE 10 TO WATCH IN CANNES
 

Initiated by Unifrance in 2014, the "10 to Watch" program aims to contribute to the emergence of new French movie talents in the international arena, by raising their profile outside France (through contact with journalists, festival programmers, broadcasters, and foreign audiences) and, in this way, to participate in the constant renewal of French cinema icons.

The artists who make up the "10 to Watch" are selected by a committee of film journalists (Variety, Screen International, Cineuropa, The Hollywood Reporter, France Inter). The list of the 10 to Watch 2024 was revealed by Unifrance in January, during the Unifrance Rendez-vous in Paris.

On Wednesday, May 22 these emerging talents will be put in the spotlight at Cannes through a press lunch with French and international journalists, followed by a red-carpet photo session arranged with the Cannes Film Festival, and a dinner on the Unifrance Terrace.  The following participants are already confirmed at this stage: Sofia Alaoui, Suzy Bemba, Céleste Brunnquell, Stéphan Castang, Stefan Crepon, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Iris Kaltenbäck, Raphaël Quenard, Souheila Yacoub, and Sofiane Zermani.

Unifrance will also produce video content (interviews, encounters, etc.) to promote this new generation of artists on social networks to foreign audiences.

For any press enquiries about Unifrance's 10 to Watch, please contact betty.bousquet@unifrance.org

10 to Watch at Cannes benefits from the collaborative participation of the Cannes Film Festival, and the invaluable support of Screen International, L'Oréal Paris, and Davines.
 

UNIFRANCE ONLINE
 

Unifrance will be present during the festival on its usual social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, and YouTube) and will deliver several series of daily posts: interviews with French filmmakers and artists, video clips dedicated to the 10 to Watch in Cannes program.

This coverage will be amplified by the presence at Cannes, alongside Unifrance, of Franco-American content creator Cécilia Jourdan (hellofrenchnyc).

Institutional communication will be reserved for LinkedIn.

Unifrance's presence in Cannes benefits from the invaluable support of: Estandon Coopérative en Provence, Davines, TitraFilm, Dammann Frères, Nespresso, Acqua Panna & San Pellegrino.

Unifrance also thanks its institutional partners and patrons: République française, CNC, Institut français, PROCIREP, Accor & Vranken-Pommery Monopole.

The festival will open with a tribute to cinema with Quentin Dupieux's latest film, The Second Act, set against the backdrop of a film shoot, featuring a quartet of characters, and whose cast Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Raphaël Quenard, and Louis Garrel will walk the red carpet to launch proceedings.

This year, six films will represent French cinema in Competition, including a first feature (Wild Diamond by Agathe Riedinger) about the world of influencers, and an animated film (The Most Precious of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius). New films by Christophe Honoré (Marcello Mio), Jacques Audiard (Emilia Perez), Gilles Lellouche (L'Amour ouf), and Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light) round out the majority-French films.
Karim Aïnouz, David Cronenberg, Miguel Gomes, Paolo Sorrentino, and Kirill Serebrennikov will also present their films, all French-minority productions.

Three French documentaries (directed by Raoul Peck, Claire Simon, and Yolande Zauberman) will be presented in Special Screenings, accompanied, in this same section, by films by Arnaud Desplechin and Daniel Auteuil. And, as in recent editions, the Cannes Première sidebar will showcase a dozen eagerly-awaited French films, including Leos Carax's medium-length feature and new films by Gaël Morel, Alain Guiraudie, and the Larrieu brothers.

Un certain regard will feature new films by Boris Lojkine and three filmmakers' debut productions:  Louise Courvoisier (Vingt Dieux), Céline Sallette (Niki), and Julien Colonna (The Kingdom). Noémie Merlant will present her second feature, The Balconettes, in a Midnight Screening.
 

Cannes Immersive

For its first competitive selection in the field of immersive creation, the Cannes Film Festival has chosen to focus on exploring the many existing hybrid forms and formats, and on works that are already recognized, rather than on world premieres. This choice will enable us to (re)discover many French creations, since six of the eight works selected are national productions or co-productions, as are the six out-of-competition works that complete the program.

The bridges between cinema and innovative immersive technologies are particularly evident in the presence of the actors and actresses who lend their voices to the works: Cate Blanchett for Evolver, Rosario Dawson and Jehnny Beth for BattleScar, Olivia Cooke and Vimala Pons for Emperor, Tahar Rahim and Collin Farrell for Gloomy Eyes, Naomi Kawase for Missing Pictures : Naomi Kawase, Jessica Chastain, Millie Bobby Brown, Patty Smith, Léa Seydoux, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Jane Birkin for Spheres, and the writer Tania De Montaigne for the adaptation of her novel Colored in augmented reality.

Parallel sections

  Quinzaine des Cinéastes (Directors' Fortnight) will open with a homage to Sophie Fillières, whose posthumous film This Life of Mine will be presented. This year's selection reveals new films by Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel, Patricia Mazuy, and Thierry De Peretti.

 Semaine de la Critique (Critics' Week) will open and close with two French films (Jonathan Millet's debut feature is opening night, while Emma Benestan's second feature closes the section). The selection also highlights two debut features, one of which will receive a Special Screening, by young filmmakers Alexis Langlois and Antoine Chevrollier.

Last but not least, Acid Cannes, true to its policy of showcasing explorative and independent cinema, will present new works by Guillaume Brac, Hélène Milano, Marcia Romano, and Benoît Sabatier, and Mona Convert.

All the French films and co-productions at the 77th Cannes Film Festival

 

OFFICIAL SELECTION

Opening film

• The Second Act by Quentin Dupieux
   

Competition

• The Most Precious of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius
• All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia
• Wild Diamond by Agathe Riedinger
• Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard
• L'Amour ouf by Gilles Lellouche
• Marcello Mio by Christophe Honoré
• Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes (minority-French co-production)
• The Shrouds by David Cronenberg (minority-French co-production)
• Limonov. The Ballad by Kirill Serebrennikov (French co-production shares not specified)
• The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof (French co-production shares not specified)
• Motel Destino by Karim Aïnouz (minority-French co-production)
• Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino (minority-French co-production)

Out-of-Competition

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre De La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte

Special Screenings

• Ernest Cole, Lost and Found by Raoul Peck
• Apprendre by Claire Simon
• The Belle from Gaza by Yolande Zauberman
• An Ordinary Case by Daniel Auteuil
• Spectateurs ! by Arnaud Desplechin
• The Invasion by Sergei Loznitsa (minority-French co-production)

Un certain regard

• The Story of Souleymane by Boris Lojkine
• Vingt Dieux by Louise Courvoisier
• The Kingdom by Julien Colonna
• Niki by Céline Sallette
• Dog on Trial by Laetitia Dosch (minority-French co-production)
• Flow by Gints Zilbalodis (minority-French co-production)
• My Sunshine by Hiroshi Okuyama (minority-French co-production)
• Santosh by Sandhya Suri (minority-French co-production)
• The Shameless by Konstantin Bojanov (French co-production shares not specified)
• The Village Next to Paradise by Mo Harawe (minority-French co-production)
• Viet and Nam by Minh Quý Trương (minority-French co-production)
• When the Light Breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson (minority-French co-production) OPENING FILM
   

Midnight Screenings

• The Balconettes by Noémie Merlant

Cannes Première

• Being Maria by Jessica Palud
• Vivre, mourir, renaître by Gaël Morel
• C'est pas moi by Leos Carax
• En fanfare by Emmanuel Courcol
• Everybody Loves Touda by Nabil Ayouch
• Jim's Story by Jean-Marie Larrieu and Arnaud Larrieu
• Miséricorde by Alain Guiraudie
• Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot by Rithy Panh
   

Screenings for young audiences

• Into The Wonderwoods by winshluss and Alexis Ducord
• You're Not the One I Expected by Claude Barras
   

Cannes Classics

• Jacques Rozier, d'une vague à l'autre by Emmanuel Barnault
• Jacques Demy, le rose et le noir by Florence Platarets
• François Truffaut, le scénario de ma vie by David Teboul
• Once Upon a Time Michel Legrand by David Dessites
• Scénarios by Jean-Luc Godard
• "La vérité est révolutionnaire - L'aveu" (an episode from the series Le siècle de Costa-Gavras) by Yannick Kergoat
   

Short films - Competition

• The Man who couldn't keep silent by Nebojša Slijepčević
• Les Belles cicatrices by Raphaël Jouzeau
• Volcelest by Éric Briche
• Sanki Yoxsan by Azer Guliev
• Across the Waters by Viv Li

Short films - Immersive Competition

• Evolver by Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin, and Robin Mcnicholas
• Maya: The Birth of a Superhero by Poulomi Basu and CJ Clarke
• The Roaming - Wetlands by Mathieu Pradat
• Human Violins by Iona Mischie
• Colored by Pierre-Alain Giraud and Stéphane Foenkinos
   

Short films - Immersive section Out-of-Competition

• BattleScar by Martin Allais and Nico Casavecchia
• Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness by James Spinney and Peter Middleton
• Gloomy Eyes by Jorge Tereso and Fernando Maldonado
• Spheres by Eliza Mcnitt
• Emperor by Marion Burger and Ilan Cohen
• Missing Pictures : Naomi Kawase by Clément Deneux
   

Short films - Cinef

• Echoes by Robinson Drossos
• Mauvais Coton by Nicolas Dumaret
   

Cinéma de la plage

• My Way by Thierry Teston, with the collaboration of Lisa Azuelos
• The Darwinners by Guigue & Jul
• Slocum et moi by Jean-François Laguionie (minority-French co-production)

56th QUINZAINE DES CINEASTES

Opening film

• This Life of Mine by Sophie Fillières

Official Selection

• Eat the Night by Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel
• Visiting Hours by Patricia Mazuy
• In His Own Image by Thierry De Peretti
• The Falling Sky by Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha (minority-French co-production)
• Ghost Cat Anzu by Yoko Kuno and Nobushiro Yamashita (French co-production shares not specified)
• To a Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel (minority-French co-production)
• Eephus by Carson Lund (minority-French co-production)
• The Other Way Around by Jonás Trueba (French co-production shares not specified)
• Mongrel by Chiang Wei Liang (minority-French co-production)
   

Closing film

• Les Pistolets en plastique by Jean-Christophe Meurisse

Short films - Official Selection

• Antoine, Élise and Léandre by Jules Follet
• After the Sun by Rayane Mcirdi

63th SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE

Opening film

• Ghost Trail by Jonathan Millet
   

Competition

• Block Pass by Antoine Chevrollier
• The Brink of Dreams by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir (French co-production shares not specified)
• Locust de Keff (minority-French co-production)
• Baby de Marcelo Caetano (French co-production shares not specified)
   

Closing film

• Animale by Emma Benestan
   

Special screenings

• Queens Of Drama by Alexis Langlois
• Across The Sea by Saïd Hamich
   

Short films - Selection

• Radikals by Arvin Belarmino
• Supersilly by Veronica Martiradonna
• Montsouris Park by Guil Sela
• Alazar by Beza Hailu Lemma
• What we ask of a statue is that it doesn’t move by Daphné Hérétakis

Short films - Special Screenings

• 1996 ou les Malheurs de Solveig by Lucie Borleteau
   

ACID CANNES 2024

Selection

• Ce n'est qu'un au revoir by Guillaume Brac
• Château Rouge by Hélène Milano
• Fotogenico by Marcia Romano and Benoît Sabatier
• Un pays en flammes by Mona Convert
• Mi bestia by Camila Beltrán
• It Doesn't Matter by Josh Mond (minority-French co-production)
• In Retreat by Maisam Ali (minority-French co-production)
   

For each territory, the market shares by broadcast time give an overview of the market configuration and the penetration of French titles. In addition, the top three positions and the distribution of French broadcasts by genre allow us to identify the titles that received the highest broadcast ratio over the period.

For the next indicator, which will be published in May, Unifrance will focus its analysis on broadcasts in the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden in March 2024.

Unifrance members can download the monthly market indicator of French audiovisual programs on international television below (in French only).
 

Unifrance: The release of Citoyennes ! takes place against the backdrop of the 80th anniversary of women's right to vote. How did the documentary project come about?

Jean-Frédéric Thibault Jean-Frédéric Thibault: When you're making documentaries, you spend your time digging around, looking at anniversaries and dates. I stumbled across this piece of information: in 2024, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of women's right to vote! It didn't seem like much to me. Digging deeper, I realized that practically the whole of Europe had passed the law after the First World War. We're in 59th place in Europe, so what's happened? And yet we're the homeland of Human Rights, with an important representation of women in the République, notably with Marianne. That was the initial question: everyone around us is passing this law, and we're waiting another thirty years to do so. Why is that?

There are many possible explanations, the most likely of which – and this is what our historian tells us – is that everything imploded during the First World War, countries were created, there were meetings, changes of government practically throughout Europe, except in France, where we were still in the old République. With people on the right convinced that if women were given the right to vote, they would vote left, and people on the left convinced that they would vote like their husbands, Catholic and conservative.

The law was passed in France in 1919, but never registered. So we unraveled the entire history of these women since the French Revolution. After all, it all started here, in 1789. The idea of giving women the right to vote was born with Olympe de Gouges and Condorcet. From being the first, we ended up being the last in Europe.

Arnaud Xainte Arnaud Xainte: This question is also part of a much broader reflection that we've been carrying out on an episodic basis for the last ten years or so. In 2015, we made the film Le fabuleux destin d'Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, an incredible woman's destiny. She said that before the French Revolution, women had freedom, and that the event took it away from them. We dug into this point and saw that in the nineteenth century, there had been a phenomenal step backwards! Women, bourgeois women, and aristocrats in any case – who potentially had emancipation ahead of them – were put back in the home, in the kitchen, looking after the children!
With #MeToo, we also asked ourselves questions about masculinity and virility. We were already interested in these issues of gender rights and rights within couples, but we hadn't really dealt with them. In the end, these themes came up in a rather unexpected way, through the history of women's right to vote.

Did you want to tackle a feminist subject?

AX: Not in a political or advocacy way, but from an anthropological, socialogical, and historical point of view. Our natural curiosity led us in this direction, and it made sense given the production's connection with La Chaîne Parlementaire channel.

JFT: We wanted to talk about all those forgotten women who fought for their rights, sometimes in extremely violent ways, especially in England, where violence was a two-way street. We learned things that were absolutely unbelievable, terrible, like forced feeding, for example. We also wanted to talk about those women who were against women's suffrage. George Sand, for example, wasn't really against it, but said there was no point in giving women the vote if they weren't educated first. She speaks of men in the same way, by the way. At the same time, Victor Hugo defended women's right to vote. We learned a lot of extremely interesting things.

AX: We must remember not to look at history through the eyes of our contemporaries. We must always put it in context. Putting history into perspective was important in producing and directing a nuanced film that clearly showed the stages of a form of emancipation. And this emancipation goes far beyond the vote, when we discover that after the right to vote in 1944, women weren't allowed to have a bank account or manage their own finances until 1965! I have memories of one of my mother's colleagues, a schoolteacher in the 1980s, who didn't know how much she earned – her husband managed everything – long after she was allowed to have a bank account. It was a whole rebalancing of gender relations that had to take place, which was absolutely necessary because this state of affairs was no longer legitimate in terms of social organization.
 

How did you go about researching documents and archives, and bringing historians together on this subject? There are several unpublished archives, including the short film by Alice Guy...

JFT: An editor with whom I often work introduced me to this short film a few years ago, and I absolutely had to use it. It's extremely funny, and it's also a little ambiguous, because with this "Great Replacement," we don't really know whether it's a critique of feminism gone too far or a critique of men.
For the archives, we didn't have a documentalist, so we tried to find something out of the ordinary, and above all to treat the subject in a slightly light-hearted way. Stéphanie Thomas, the co-director, who is also a journalist, found the speakers. Archival footage was used to illustrate what the speakers had to say. We also used a little animation, in homeopathic doses, to lighten the subject a little.

AX: Coming back to Stéphanie, we felt it was absolutely essential to co-direct with a woman.

JFT: Above all, she brought me all her know-how as a journalist.

AX: She does a lot of radio documentaries for "Les Pieds sur Terre," on France Culture, and has an excellent ability to find the right participants – it was she who found the centenarian women who voted for the first time in 1945, for example. Working as a duo also enabled us to have different points of view and angles of attack. What's more, Stéphanie's mother is Dutch, and lived in Belgium for a long time, so she was able to bring together very different cultural and social backgrounds to enrich the story.
 

Was showing the diversity of views on this issue on the international stage, particularly in Europe, one of the things you wanted to tackle?

JFT: Absolutely, that was the basic idea to explain why France had been so slow. Compare different systems, different policies. In Europe, the Finns were the first, they had a totally different vision of the division of society between men and women. The world was divided in two, but not in the same way as here. The men brought in the money, while the women ran the country. That's why it was so surprisingly simple over there. Of course, we needed an English historian to tell us the story of the Suffragettes, who were fundamental to the history of women's suffrage.

AX: We're also delighted to be working with La Chaîne Parlementaire. It's very interesting from an editorial point of view, but also in terms of international sales. When you want to shoot with foreign contributors, and you have a lot of archives to find, you have to find other sources of income, and so you have to look abroad.
At this stage, many foreigners still find the film too French. In Canada, for example, Quebec women in particular have had a totally different experience, and the couple is not at all seen in the same way. For them, what we're talking about is very distant, even if we've put in a bit of America, which is closer to their experience. Belgium was already preparing something about women and Belgian destiny. We came up against these limits. But we've still made a few sales (RTP in Portugal and Ceska TV in Czech Republic) , and I think that in the long term, things will come together.
 

What can this documentary teach us today, in a context that is certainly much more egalitarian, but where many battles remain to be fought?

JFT:  The vision we have is a European one. But for women in Africa, or anywhere else in the world, there's a lot of work to be done. I really wanted to end the film with what Anne-Sarah Moalic had to say. We didn't entirely agree with Stéphanie at the outset. But that's the logic of the story. For a hundred years, women have been fighting for laws. Of course, there are still pay inequalities and things to be sorted out, but things are on the right track and people are listening now.
As far as men are concerned, we've had the same images of virility and strength for 3,000 years, and it just doesn't fit anymore. What interested me was to end on this somewhat unexpected note: to say that the next battle would be a humanist one, to restore men's place in society. Many women raise the issue of this masculinity. I think we're going to try to work together to regain a social balance and strip away all the clichéd images of triumphant virility, which in any case have collapsed since the First World War to create strong new images.

AX: It's not a battle of one sex against the other, but the idea of rediscovering a new social model. Together asking ourselves, how can we reinvent things?

JFT: I thought it was interesting to end on that note and reopen the debate on something else. The fact that it was a woman saying it made it all the more relevant.
 

What are the program's attributes that lend it international appeal? ?

AX: I've made several social documentaries based on French cases, such as L'Enfant du double espoir. It's always interesting to use a foreign case as a starting point for analyzing your own society. 16 or17 years ago, I did an amazing job of selling a film about Grigny la Grande Borne, a suburb in the south of Paris. It was an immersion in that town, which I sold all the way to NHK! It was surprising, and said a lot about the daily lives of poor people. The fact that it's centered on France isn't a problem, because it makes you think without resorting to effects.

There's another interesting aspect, and it's aimed more at the younger generation. This is what our first centenarian voters are saying: "But I've never missed an election! We fought so hard to have this right, how could we dare not go and vote?"
It's a right that today we have the impression is immutable and that we've always had it. But no, it's recent! We can see how the right to abortion is being undermined in the United States. Let's be careful, let's protect these rights, because they're precious, and let's use them! Not voting is also voting in a direction. Let's make a decision and get involved.

JFT: None of this insignificant: if women died for this cause, there was a reason.

AX: Being a society means choosing a common destiny. And if the members of a society don't have an equal right to give their voice to that common destiny, what becomes of that society? If this film makes people think about all this, we'll be very happy, because this kind of subject also serves this purpose.

As inventive as they are daring, and at times singular, the short film format is essential to the renewal of the cinema arts, and rarely leaves anyone indifferent. With Unifrance's constant support, short films continue to conquer foreign festivals and markets. The 2024 vintage of the Unifrance Short Film Awards promises to be inspiring, and we hope that this spotlight will be the start or continuation of a long international career for the creators and producers of these films.

Program 1

• If I Lie by Séverine Werba
• Percebes by Alexandra Ramires & Laura Gonçalves
• Aïda Neither by Élisa Gilmour
• Hurikán by Jan Saska
• Suleyman by Mehdi Hamnane & Yanis Hamnane
• Palestine Islands by Nour Ben Salem & Julien Menanteau

Program 2

• Furious by Thomas Vernay
• The One Who Knows by Davidavičė Eglė
• The Color of Chlorine by Clément Dezelus
• The Path by Marie Vieillevie
• Street Casting by Tatiana Vialle
• Ashen Sun by Camille Monnier
• Suzanne d’Émilie de Monsabert
   

Program 3

• Maitighar (La Danse des mariés) by Marc Gurung
• Antheor by Patrice Joseph Blanc
• 43° in the Shade by Pauline Bailay
• The White Crows by Denis Liakhov
• A Stand Still Journey by Izù Troin
• Coléoptère by Martin Gouzou

Program 4

• Changing Rooms by Violette Gitton
• Hello Summer by Martin Smatana & Veronika Zacharová
• Laka by Germain Le Carpentier
• Todos los futuros by Bárbara Cerro
• GiGi by Cynthia Calvi
• Robespierre by Pierre Menahem
• We Are Griots by Demba Konaté

The jury is composed of:

• Guadalupe Arensburg Caellas – Movistar+ (Spain)
• Bénédicte Bourgois – RTBF (Belgium)
• Laurence Côte – Actress, winner of Best Actress 2022 (Le Point de reprise by Nicolas Panay)
• Maguette Betty Danfakha – Director of the Dakar Court festival (Senegal)
• Isabelle Gibbal-Hardy – Director of Le Grand Action movie theater
• Nicole Gillet – Director of the Festival de Namur (Belgium)
• Gilles Reunis – Be TV (Belgium)

The jury met on Friday April 26 for an intense and emotionally-charged day!
The winners will be announced at Cannes on Thursday, May 23. On this occasion, Unifrance and La Fête du court métrage will also announce the Distributor Award 2024.

Unifrance warmly thanks Gilles Cuvelier for the originality of his inspiring illustration, which gives this 22nd edition its identity. The organization also thanks all its partners: TitraFilm, Le Grand Action, Shortfilmdepot, Sauve qui peut le court métrage, Courant3D, and Brefcinéma.

 

Anatomy of a Fall attracted over one million additional spectators and returned to the top of the rankings. Autumn and the Black Jaguar and Cat & Dog – The Great Crossing claimed second and third place.

Strong box office results continue for French films abroad

Autumn and the Black Jaguar French films registered five million admissions and generated €32.2 million in ticket sales in foreign theaters in March. Monthly admissions reached their second highest peak post-pandemic, after those recorded in February, and even surpassed the March 2019 results! Having relinquished the crown to Autumn and the Black Jaguar after four consecutive months of reign, Anatomy of a Fall is now back at it again. More than one million foreign viewers discovered the Oscar and Palme d'Or winner this month, with total ticket sales exceeding 4.5 million and now aiming for 5 million! The drama was a sensation in China where it attracted more than 400,000 moviegoers (China Film, €2.29 million in box office revenues) and even made it into the local top 5. Not since Taxi 5 in 2018 (China Film, 1 million admissions and a total of €3.75 million) has a French-language, majority-financed drama gotten off to such an enthusiastic start in China). Anatomy of a Fall also continued its royal career in Germany (Plaion,  498,000 and €5.09 million), Brazil (Diamond, 261,000 and €1.09 million), Australia (Madman, 139,000 and €1.36 million), Japan (Gaga, 135,000 and €1.18 million), and Poland (M2, 215,000 and €1.07 million in total). Autumn and the Black Jaguar may have lost March's top position, but it continued to attract fans around the world. During the month, nearly 30,000 Quebec moviegoers (TVA, €0.22 million) and 26,000 Czechs and Slovaks (Bonton, €0.18 million) discovered it on the big screen, not to mention nearly 300,000 Germans, who helped it cross the symbolic threshold of one million admissions in Germany (StudioCanal, €7.94 million) and two million outside France! Autumn and the Black Jaguar has now sold 421,000 tickets in Poland (Kino Swiat, €1.96 million), 253,000 in Italy (01 Distribution, €1.69 million), and 110,000 in Austria (Constantin, €0.96 million). The last step of the podium went to Cat & Dog – The Great Crossing,with 316,000 admissions in Russia (Global, €0.91 million), ahead of another comedy, Oh La La, which delighted 194,000 Germans (Weltkino, €1.83 million) and 37,000 Austrians (Filmladen, €0.37 million). The Taste of Things rounds off the top five: the film has generated $2.64 million at the box office in the USA since its release at the beginning of February, corresponding to 252,000 admissions (IFC), followed by successful debuts in Vietnam (CJ HK/Lumix, 28,000 and €0.09 million), Norway (Another World, 10,000 and €0.12 million), and Singapore (Shaw, 2,000 and €0.02 million). Traditionally much more changeable, the lower half of the top 10 often welcomes new entrants, and March was no exception. Maria Montessori attracted 202,000 Germans (Neue Visionen, €1.77 million), while Vermin was exported to Latin America, where it haunted 82,000 Mexicans (Gussi/Supra, €0.28 million) and 36,000 Colombians, while Kina & Yuk appealed to 39,000 Italian (Adler, €0.26 million) and 26,000 Quebec moviegoers (Les Films Opale, 36,000 and €0.27 million in total), and The Braid moved 60,000 German-speaking viewers (Capelight in Germany, Polyfilm in Austria, and Praesens in Switzerland). And let's not forget The Jungle Bunch: World Tour, chosen by 140,000 fans this month. These 10 titles accounted for 69% of admissions generated by French productions outside France in March 2024.
 

Germany, Mexico, and China: the top three territories in March

VerminAs usual, Europe remains the leading geographic zone for French cinema (61% of monthly admissions). Western Europe accounted for two million admissions for the month to date, while Central and Eastern Europe (0.98 million) was followed by Latin America (0.94 million), which in turn outstripped Asia (0.66 million). The aforementioned Anatomy of a Fall (0.76 million admissions), Vermin (0.12 million), and The Taste of Things (0.12 million), to which we can add a minority-French production Robot Dreams (0.57 million), were the most popular outside Europe, and their scores explain the boom in extra-European attendance for French productions. Germany (0.93 million) remained at the top of the territories' ranking, followed by Mexico (0.65 million) and China (0.42 million). 14 foreign territories (13 in February, six in January) offered more than 100,000 admissions each to French productions in March 2024..
 

Drama still dominated as the most popular genre, but comedy made a strong comeback

Cat & Dog – The Great CrossingIn March, drama retained the title of favorite genre internationally (1.67 million admissions, 33% of the monthly total), thanks to the breakthroughs of Anatomy of a Fall and The Taste of Things. The warm  welcome given to Cat & Dog - The Great Crossing, Oh La La, Robot Dreams, Maria Montessori, and Vermin restored color to the respective genres  – comedy, animation, biopic, and fantasy –, offering them more viewers than in February. Majority-French productions (81% of total admissions) and French-language productions (77%) still accounted for the lion's share of the month's admissions. Finally, almost 1.63 million admissions went to arthouse films (33% of the monthly total), led by Anatomy of a Fall and The Taste of Things.

French films at international festivals in March 2024

Three films presented at the Rendez-Vous With French Cinema in New York and/or French Film Festival in Yokohama, organized by Unifrance in March, also enjoyed a successful career at a number of other festivals. Already programmed at Toronto, San Sebastián, and Marrakech, Les Indésirables thus continued its tour in Yokohama and New York, accompanied by its director Ladj Ly.
Awarded at Cannes' Semaine de la Critique and presented at São Paulo and Zurich, The Rapture won the Best Emerging Director Award at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous With French Cinema in New York.
Another title selected by the Semaine de la Critique last year, Àma Gloria, was also presented to audiences at Unifrance festivals in New York and Yokohama. It was accompanied by director Marie Amachoukeli and the film's young actress Louise Mauroy-Panzani (pictured below during a autograph session with Japanese audiences). The film also screened at the Morelia Festival and at Cinemania.

> This report can be downloaded in PDF format below (French version only).

> This report is based on results recorded on April 15, 2024. Since our statistics for film releases are continuously being updated, the graphics generated automatically on our website will differ from the chart featured in this article.

On the audiovisual front

Señal News reported on French documentaries at MIPTV.
➡️ Read the article online
 

The same media announced the launch of Season 6 of Yeti Tales by France Télévisions.
➡️ Read the article online

In Prensario, we learnt that Kabul, a series produced by 24 25 Films, will be distributed by Mediawan.
➡️ Read the article online
 

We also learnt that North American and European distribution rights for Go Astro Boy Go! had been secured.
➡️ Read the article online
 

In the United Kingdom, Drama Quarterly classed Homejacking among the 10 series to watch in April
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In Italy, TV Blog announced the airing of Season 4 of Deadly Tropics on Sky and NOW.
➡️ Read the article online
 

In Spain, the first three episodes of Split will be screened during the 13th Muestra du Ciné Lésbico in Madrid, AMC Network reported.
➡️ Read the article online
 

And Spanish daily La Vanguardia wrote about Under Paris: "Killer sharks are always in fashion." The series will be broadcast in Spain from June 5 on Netflix.
➡️ Read the article online

In Australia, SBS announced the upcoming broadcast of Of Money and Blood.
➡️ Read the article online


To conclude the Audiovisual section, an interview on Señal News with Nadia Chevallard (Head of Distribution at Newen Connect) about the appeal of political thrillers.
➡️ Read the article online
 

On the festivals and awards front

From Italy, Cinecittà News highlighted the professional meetings held as part of the Rendez-vous – Nuovo cinema francese.
➡️ Read the article online

In Switzerland, Alice Diop, invited to Visions du Réel, declared in Screen: "My films are cut through with the need to resist the violence of our times."
➡️ Read the article online
 

And in Argentina, André Téchiné's latest film My New Friends caught people's attention at BAFICI: "A gripping thriller... buoyed by the fine performances of its leading trio," we can read in Cinefilo Serial.
➡️ Read the article online
 

On the theatrical releases front

In Mexico, Glits magazine published an interview with Vincent Mottez to mark the release of his film Vaincre ou mourir.
➡️ Read the article online

François Ozon continued his fine career in Latin America with the release of The Crime Is Mine in Uruguay: "The classic charm of French cinema," we can read in El Pais.
➡️ Read the article online

And in Argentina, Yannick by Quentin Dupieux well be aired on Mubi, Página 12 announced.
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Prensario announced the release on American screens of the animated film Mars Express.
➡️ Read the article online

And in Quebec, Stéphanie Di Giusto, interviewed by Cinoche for the release of Rosalie, said: "I find it very interesting to question what it is to be a woman."
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In Portugal, director Stéphan Castang declared to the daily Jornal de Noticias: "I've erased the word 'hope' from my vocabulary," during the release of his film Vincent Must Die.
➡️ Read the article online
 

Sofia Alaoui "denounces in Animalia the cupidity of capitalism, xenophobia, and classism," Público wrote, for the film's release in Spain.
➡️ Read the article online
 

And this journey through the international press comes to an end in Australia, with the release of Jeanne du Barry: "A classic costume drama of grand scale," we can read in Sydney Arts Guide.
➡️ Read the article online